Hello! It's Your Met Gala Open Thread!
Let's talk this afternoon!
Welcome to the first Monday in May, a.k.a. Met Gala day, a.k.a. the most interesting red carpet event on the calendar. As a refresher, the purpose of the gala is to raise money for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it does so in conjunction with the opening of the Institute’s big fashion exhibit for the year.
This year, that exhibit is Costume Art, which the museum says “explores depictions of the dressed body across The Met’s vast collection, pairing garments with artworks to reveal the inherent relationship between clothing and the body.” The gala itself has a slightly different — and pleasantly vague — dress code of “Fashion Is Art” which honestly just feels like Anna Wintour and crew telling everyone to do anything they want because it’s gotten tiresome hearing People on the Internet argue about whether or not Emma Roberts or whoever is on theme. (Saint Laurent is bankrolling the exhibition catalog, so this code is also helpfully giving them the green light to just send their guests out in any old thing they like.)
Another fun fact: Per the New York Times, “This Met Gala is celebrating both the next big Costume Institute show and the Costume Institute’s new home: the Condé M. Nast Galleries. Housed in the 11,500-square-foot space that used to be the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s gift shop, the fashion galleries will now be the first thing visitors see when they walk into the Great Hall.” Cool!
The gala’s official co-chairs are Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams and (obviously) Anna Wintour, while Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are “honorary chairs, providing the main source of funding for the exhibition and the party itself.”1 The Bezos Of It All has caused a ton of controversy. While personally I think there is an argument that funding large art exhibitions and bankrolling related fundraisers are some of the very things that billionaires should be doing, Jeff and Lauren are (understandably and correctly) extremely unpopular at the moment and are also definitely not doing any of this because of any enduring passion for the arts, nor in an understated or tasteful way. The activist group that protested in Venice during their (also neither understated nor tasteful) wedding has landed in New York and is already stirring the pot; I would not be surprised if they managed to get a protester on the carpet, which would be exciting for all of us. (I don’t even think Anna would be that mad; they’d get so much more press!) Andrew Bolton has made a huge point of saying the Institute has been saving scrupulously and might be self-sustaining in 2-4 years, and I can’t help but think he is desperate to imply, “Billionaires will not be required much longer so everyone please hang in there.”
Bezoses aside, this year, the gala “host committee” — an honorary position that basically just assures these people show up, IMO — includes celebrities Adut Akech, Angela Bassett, Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, Gwendoline Christie, Misty Copeland, Elizabeth Debicki, Lena Dunham, Rebecca Hall, Lisa, Sam Smith, Teyana Taylor, A’ja Wilson, Chase Sui Wonders, and Yseult, among other luminaries. This raises an interesting question: Will the Bezos Effect lead to a less starry red carpet than previously, if folks would rather not be associated with them? (Remember, Charlize Theron once publicly said that everyone who went to the Bezos/Sanchez wedding sucks.) Probably not, realistically. Either way, I am excited to see what some of those people plan to wear to this.
So how to do that? Great question! The whole shebang kicks off today, Monday, May 4 at 3 pm PST/6 pm EDT on Vogue.com, and streams on all of Vogue’s digital platforms, including their YouTube channel and TikTok. This year’s livestream hosts are old friends Ashley Graham, La La Anthony, and Cara Delevingne, with Emma Chamberlain popping in occasionally again to remind us that she’s actually very charming on film. Vogue’s presser about the livestream implies they’ve got a new production company running this — the folks who did Sabrina Carpenter’s Coachella set — so hopefully it will be more technically adept than usual. (Or not! It’s way more fun for us when the entire thing is a bit of a mess. Perfection is boring.) Here at Drinks With Broads, we’ll start chatting below at 3 pm PST, too. Want to join the fun?